October 30, 2016

Director Comey's "fail safe" option

Perhaps you recall the Sidney Lumet-directed, Cold War film Fail Safe (1964), whose ultimately dreadful yet vastly pragmatic premise is that two wrongs can indeed make a right. Its larger plot, briefly stated, is that computer errors and technical complications cause the U.S. Strategic Air Command to, ahem, accidently annihilate Moscow. President Henry Fonda thereupon concludes that to avert full-scale, Soviet nuclear retaliation and global destruction, he, in turn and without domestic warning, must annihilate New York City and all its inhabitants as a demonstration of sorry-about-that good faith.

Fail Safe is a helluva gut-wrenching film; if you haven't seen it, you should. Other than its underlying morality tale — that of unspeakably catastrophic technology outpacing humanity's ability to control it — the movie upends your mother and kindergarten teacher's well-meaning admonition that two wrongs can never make a right. Sometimes, tit-for-tit dreadfulness is the only way to balance the scales of justice. Accordingly, President Fonda could teach FBI Director James Comey a thing or two. The NY Times:

The [director's letter to Congress] rankled Mrs. Clinton’s supporters in part because Mr. Comey has been circumspect in his remarks about another federal investigation, this one involving allegations of Russian meddling in the election. American officials believe that Russian intelligence agents are behind the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails, which have embarrassed the Clinton campaign.

Senior Democrats have called on the F.B.I. to investigate whether any of Donald J. Trump’s aides are colluding with Russia. Some of his aides have ties to Russian interests, but they have denied any wrongdoing.

While Mr. Comey told Congress last month that he would not confirm the existence of any investigation into people associated with Mr. Trump, he said he felt compelled to discuss details of the Clinton investigation because it involved "exceptional circumstances where the public needed information."

A swelling contingent of former Justice Department officials (see, for example, this and this) has denounced Comey's brandished investigation into Clinton's emails as a stupefying and unprecedented wrong. Coming, as it did, within two weeks of the presidential election, the director's horrendous judgment has disoriented Clinton's campaign and energized Trump's supporters. With no much-needed time in which to defend herself, the Democratic nominee is rendered a flailing victim of official malfeasance. What's done is done.

There is, however, a way for Director Comey to at least somewhat right his unprecedented wrong. He can annihilate New York City. Which is to say (though bloody obvious the metaphor is) he can similarly announce that the FBI indeed has an active investigation into the Trump campaign's collusion with Russian hackers — and "Premier" Valdimir Putin himself. If the presence of Clinton emails on a former congressman's laptop poses an exceptional circumstance about which the public needed to know — and right or wrong, that's a done deal — then the widely rumored circumstance of Trumpian miscreants colluding with a hostile foreign power to influence an American presidential election qualifies as equally exceptional — in fact, far more so.

As dreadfully wrong as it might be in the annals of legal ethics, Director Comey should rightly fire off a letter to Republican committee chairmen and thus the American electorate, informing both that Trumpian treason is under active investigation. This, Comey should "confirm." He can always add that nothing of any significance may be found, and, well, damn, he can't really say any more. But fair is fair. New York for Moscow.

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Director Comey's "fail safe" option

Perhaps you recall the Sidney Lumet-directed, Cold War film Fail Safe (1964), whose ultimately dreadful yet vastly pragmatic premise is that two wrongs can indeed make a right. Its larger plot, briefly stated, is that computer errors and technical complications cause the U.S. Strategic Air Command to, ahem, accidently annihilate Moscow. President Henry Fonda thereupon concludes that to avert full-scale, Soviet nuclear retaliation and global destruction, he, in turn and without domestic warning, must annihilate New York City and all its inhabitants as a demonstration of sorry-about-that good faith.

Fail Safe is a helluva gut-wrenching film; if you haven't seen it, you should. Other than its underlying morality tale — that of unspeakably catastrophic technology outpacing humanity's ability to control it — the movie upends your mother and kindergarten teacher's well-meaning admonition that two wrongs can never make a right. Sometimes, tit-for-tit dreadfulness is the only way to balance the scales of justice. Accordingly, President Fonda could teach FBI Director James Comey a thing or two. The NY Times:

The [director's letter to Congress] rankled Mrs. Clinton’s supporters in part because Mr. Comey has been circumspect in his remarks about another federal investigation, this one involving allegations of Russian meddling in the election. American officials believe that Russian intelligence agents are behind the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails, which have embarrassed the Clinton campaign.

Senior Democrats have called on the F.B.I. to investigate whether any of Donald J. Trump’s aides are colluding with Russia. Some of his aides have ties to Russian interests, but they have denied any wrongdoing.

While Mr. Comey told Congress last month that he would not confirm the existence of any investigation into people associated with Mr. Trump, he said he felt compelled to discuss details of the Clinton investigation because it involved "exceptional circumstances where the public needed information."

A swelling contingent of former Justice Department officials (see, for example, this and this) has denounced Comey's brandished investigation into Clinton's emails as a stupefying and unprecedented wrong. Coming, as it did, within two weeks of the presidential election, the director's horrendous judgment has disoriented Clinton's campaign and energized Trump's supporters. With no much-needed time in which to defend herself, the Democratic nominee is rendered a flailing victim of official malfeasance. What's done is done.

There is, however, a way for Director Comey to at least somewhat right his unprecedented wrong. He can annihilate New York City. Which is to say (though bloody obvious the metaphor is) he can similarly announce that the FBI indeed has an active investigation into the Trump campaign's collusion with Russian hackers — and "Premier" Valdimir Putin himself. If the presence of Clinton emails on a former congressman's laptop poses an exceptional circumstance about which the public needed to know — and right or wrong, that's a done deal — then the widely rumored circumstance of Trumpian miscreants colluding with a hostile foreign power to influence an American presidential election qualifies as equally exceptional — in fact, far more so.

As dreadfully wrong as it might be in the annals of legal ethics, Director Comey should rightly fire off a letter to Republican committee chairmen and thus the American electorate, informing both that Trumpian treason is under active investigation. This, Comey should "confirm." He can always add that nothing of any significance may be found, and, well, damn, he can't really say any more. But fair is fair. New York for Moscow.